Fr. Gerard Kelly
Anyone who has done any gardening probably knows
the type of situation that Jesus is talking about in the parable of the wheat
and the darnell. However, they probably
don’t act in the same way that the farmer did in the parable. All the gardeners I know spend a lot of time
weeding the garden, making it look good and making sure that there is plenty of
room for the plants to grow. In the
parable, the weeds are allowed to keep growing among the good crop of
wheat. I am sure that those listening to
Jesus back then were just as shocked as any gardener today would be if we told
them to leave the weeds to grow among the plants.
But Jesus wants to make the point that sometimes
it is hard to distinguish the weeds from the wheat, especially in the early
period of growth. To stay with the
gardening analogy, the fear of any parent allowing their child to weed the
garden is that the child might pull out some of the plants as well as
weeds. In Jesus’ time the situation was
a little more complex because the roots of the wheat were often intertwined
with the roots of the darnell. Pulling
out all the darnell would easily result in the wheat crop being destroyed.
Why does Jesus tell this parable? It is like all the parables of Jesus: it
tells us something about God and the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is growing in the world. The temptation for a lot of people is to see
God’s kingdom as being outside the world and having nothing much to do with the
world. They see it as a type of utopia
that might even help them escape from the things they don’t like in the
world. But this is not the kingdom that
Jesus preaches. If the wheat in the
parable is a sign of the kingdom growing, then those who think of the kingdom
as being outside the world are simply thinking of a perfect field of wheat with
no weeds growing anywhere. But that is
not how God works. The fact that the
field contains both wheat and weeds is a sign that the kingdom is taking root
and growing in the world – even in the midst of the messy aspects of the world
and of life. The kingdom doesn’t change
the world into a utopia, but slowly transforms the world. Once God’s work is complete then we will see
a good field of wheat. But right now God
is patiently at work bringing the kingdom about. While we live as people of the kingdom even
now, we also live with the messy things of the world.
What is true of the world is also true of our own
individual lives. Part of being human is
to have dreams and expectations about life.
We all want what is good; we want the best. At certain moments in our lives that vision
of what is good for us clarifies and we make a resolution to set our course for
what will bring that vision to life. But
this does not always last, and we can be overcome by disappointment. The reality of our own weakness can even lead
to a certain paralysis, or we can feel that it is too hard to get up and keep
going. Sometimes this is an intense
feeling, but at other times it just seems part of the normal everyday
experience of living in our family or workplace or community. We are confronted by an imperfect world. We are confronted with the weeds that seem to
be growing along with the wheat.
This does not mean that we should simply sit back
and not worry about personal conversion or looking for ways to change our
lives. That is not the point of the
parable. The point rather seems to be
that God is patient with us. In the
parable, the farmer knows that the crop will produce wheat. For us, this means that the kingdom of God is
definitely taking hold of our world and our lives. It is this conviction that allows us to
transcend weakness and frailty, and not be weighted down by it. God does not abandon us because of our
weakness, but rather uses the very things that are weakest in us and that
perhaps trouble us most, to transform us.
This is the great paradox about God.
The religious leaders of Jesus’ time thought that God was only interested
in those who were worthy of him – those who were ritually and socially
pure. But Jesus showed time and time
again that God was more interested in stooping down to lift up those who were
bent over in pain or sorrow or sin. He
loved them.
To appreciate what is going on here we need to
take account of the other parables that Jesus tells immediately after he speaks
of the wheat and the darnell. He
compares the kingdom to mustard seed.
This is a tiny seed, yet it contains all that is necessary to grow into
a huge tree. In other words, God has
given all of us the gift to grow into a kingdom people. We all have the potential to become the sort
of person that God has called us to be. We
have the capacity to love the God who loves us.
Sometimes we may feel that we don’t know how to seek out this God. St Paul reminds us that the Spirit of God
dwelling in us helps us in our weakness.
The parables today invite us to be open to the
Spirit of God and to see God’s Spirit at work in our lives and in our world,
transforming them. This is not a call to
run away from the world, but to be part of a world that is slowly being
transformed in the kingdom of God. We
too are slowly being transformed so that we reflect more clearly the image of
God.
